Louis Latour and the White Burgundy Phenomenon
Doesn’t that sound like an amazing band name?
Ok. So. Much like Scientology, I think there are levels of understanding or consciousness that one goes through on her way to becoming a wine lover. More often than not, that journey involves Chardonnay.
Chardonnay is a loaded wine. If people tell you they love Chardonnay, you can bet they aren’t huge winos. It’s an easy one to drink when you’re just getting started.
Then you have the folks who drink the stuff regularly but still aren’t huge wine geeks. They’ve somehow moved beyond Chardonnay. They’re above Chardonnay. “Oh,” they say, “I don’t do Chardonnay.” My beloved Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine writers call these folks the ABC club—Anything But Chardonnay.
Well, show me a Chardonnay hater and I’ll show you a white Burgundy lover.
Quick lesson to the not-so-wonky: white Burgundy is Chardonnay, punks. It just happens to come from Burgundy, France, instead of California, Australia, and so forth.
One of the problems with Chardonnay (and why it becomes unappealing to a palate that’s moved beyond basics) is that it’s an easy grape to grow and is often abused by mass-producers. They overgrow the grapes (which yield more wine, ultimately), resulting in flat, generic-tasting Chardonnay. Oak the crap out of it to give the feel that it’s actually sat in a barrel for any amount of time, and you’ve got yourself the Generic California/Australian/whatever Chardonnay.
But white Burgundy is a different experience altogether. Aside from being (in my humble opinion) one of the most versatile wines out there, you can drink it in any season—really chilled in the summer, or slightly chilled in the winter—with food, without food… anything goes.
Although the degree of variety, name, and pricing with regards to white Burgundies is vast, look for a Macon-Villages or Pouilly-Fuisséto start, as they tend to be more approachable from a pricing perspective.
Comments
By Lauren McNally
Lauren B. McNally is a New York based consultant and freelance writer who spends most of her free time exploring culinary and oenological pursuits with friends. She originally hails from Maine and graduated from Bowdoin College,spending time abroad at the University of Cambridge in the UK (where she found the dining hall cuisine rather offensive and repulsive, as opposed to the top-ranked Bowdoin Dining Services). Her palate is ever-evolving but Burgundies are among her current obsessions. Her least favorite wine-related phrase: “I don’t like _.” Lauren also enjoys cooking Italian and French cuisine, and has an unnatural obsession with Gorgonzola and pancetta.
About The Humble Gourmand
The Humble Gourmand is published the first Friday of each month, edited by Alison L. McConnell, a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and writer. It is designed to offer straightforward lessons and advice to aspiring cooks, oenophiles, and all other eaters and drinkers.
The Humble Gourmand encourages users to comment on any and all of its features, but reserves the right to remove any material deemed inappropriate.
Post yours
You're not logged in. Would you like to register or log in?.